I've had a board, under power, hit my right eye socket so hard it felt like being punched in the face by a BIG guy. It really knocked my head back. Had my face guard not stopped the board just as its pointed nose kissed my eyelid, I'm sure the eye would have been destroyed. Both times it was my own board, a fraction of a second after a catapult.

That was decades ago, but I was not a novice. I was a competent WSer in winds averaging 30-40 mph, but $#!+ happens.

The temple blow that rang my bell through my helmet happened when I blew a jump, the board landed before I did, and I came down on it on my temple. There was no one near me, the swell was overhead, and I was a kilometer offshore. Had that bell tolled for a minute rather than a couple of seconds, I may well have drowned.

I've had a friend wake up twice hundreds of yards downwind of where he had been sailing, with his head hurting. He was very lucky that his ordinary PFD -- required by law back then in that state -- happened to keep his face up. Sometimes $#!+ doesn't happen.

I have only been "bonked" on the head once while sailing "racing" in conditions that I would not have been in otherwise. Some blood, but not a big deal - no helmet. That's 33 years without much happening on the water. Now, I always wear a helmet and an impact vest, but impacts are rare, so it's more useful for easier water starts and clearing the sail. Helps with warmth in the winter too.

Used a great helmet in the Gorge for the simple reason that I likely would get hit by someone else's gear flying through the air. The choices back then were basically the plastic Protec for $45 and a fiberglass Delgado Flyaway for about $85. Considering the danger, I went with the Delgado. About 20 days later, some idiot to windward bailed on a 3.5 day at the Hatch. All I saw was the board's fin tomahawking through the air. I ducked and the fin hit my head. Of course.

The blow knocked me from my harness lines. My helmet showed an inch-long gouge from the fin, but certainly prevented a stabbing on the water! My choice in helmets was the correct one!

I've never been hit hard by my own gear, nor fallen onto it from a high jump. Since I haven't sailed the Hatch in 8 years my helmet is long gone.

Lesson to share: some protection is probably better than none, but no polyethylene or polystyrene (plastic) helmet is nearly as good as fiberglass at preventing punctures.

I must quarrel with a first page post that equated risk with probability. Nicholas Taleb once said humans are pretty good at assessing probability but very poor at assessing risk. In my lake sailing the probability that I will be injured badly enough I can't swim in is very low, but what I am risking is my life so I always wear a life jacket/PFD.

My bloodiest cut ever while WSing was a scalp laceration obtained while slogging with a 6.2 on a lake before I got smart enough to armor said scalp. I came within an inch of opening my femoral artery in a 15-mph dirt bike topple. As you imply, risk = likelihood X cost. If the cost is infinite (and water amplifies the cost) and the likelihood is non-zero, the risk is still infinite.

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